In recent years, consciousness of pickiness etc. about safety and production districts of agricultural, forest and fishery products, and the like has been increased in customers and retailers. However, with regard to the production districts, the producers and the wholesalers that ship the agricultural, forest and fishery products to be put on shops of the retailers, the customers and retailers have no means of knowing them.
Namely, in the conventional distribution system of the agricultural, forest and fishery product, many intermediate customers (multiple wholesales etc.) stand between the producers and the customers. Due to the fact that many intermediate customers stand between the producers and the customers in such a manner, when the agricultural, forest and fishery product is delivered to the customers, it is difficult that individual product information (the production district, a producer name, a variety, a cultivation method, a harvest day, quality information, and the like of the above agricultural, forest and fishery product) of the above agricultural, forest and fishery product is precisely conveyed.
Thereupon, the individual product information acquisition system of agricultural products that enables the customer etc. to easily know individual product information of the agricultural products has been proposed (for example, Patent literature 1).
In the technology of the Patent literature 1, affixing an ID number, being an identifier, to the agricultural product such as a melon allows persons (for example, customers) other than persons involved in producing these melons (producing farmers or agricultural cooperatives) to freely acquire individual product information related to the above melon based on the above-mentioned ID number. For this, a label (seal or sticker) having the ID number described therein is affixed to the agricultural product.
Further, the technology of the Patent literature 1 causes a computer system installed in a separately-installed neutral engine (for example, a database agency) to store the individual product information related to the agriculture product together with the above-mentioned ID number, and structures a database. The producer transmits the above-mentioned ID number to this computer system, and together with it, transmits the production district, the producer name, the variety, the cultivation method, the harvest day and the quality information (a sugar content etc.) each of which is the individual product information of the above agriculture product.
At least one computer is installed in the shop of the retailer and the home of the customer, and together with it, the computer is connected to the above-mentioned computer system via a general public circuit in a manner of free communication. And the shop of the retailer and the customer transmit the ID number described in the label affixed to the agriculture product to the computer system, thereby making it possible to acquire the individual product information related to the agriculture product to be specified by the above ID number.